My best friend, who came up to stay with me this weekend, spurred me on to write this article. We were sitting down, I had just served up our dinner and I raised my wine glass to make a toast. She did the same, then almost instantaneously snapped back her glass and screeched wide-eyed with horror “You can’t toast with water, it’s bad luck!” She revealed to me that in Vietnam this is a highly popular belief. This got me thinking about all the different kinds of superstitions; where on earth did they stem from? Would we consider our ingrained superstitions so rational if we learnt their origins? Let’s see…
Toasting with water brings bad luck
In Greek Mythology, the dead were supposed to drink water from the River Lethe in the Underworld, to forget their past lives. This is where the superstition arose and those who toasted water were believed to be toasting to their own watery grave. By someone making a toast, they were making a wish to the Gods and their drink was perceived as an offering to them. However, as water was low-quality and bland in comparison to wine, it was seen as a rude gesture which would offend the Gods and bring ill fortune on them.
Breaking a mirror causes seven years bad luck
This superstition originates from the Romans, the creators of the glass mirror. They thought if a person’s reflection was distorted, this reflected their soul being corrupt. They believed their creation could steal part of the person’s soul using it, therefore a distorted image would imply a trapped soul inside. However, the Romans did think your soul could be renewed, every seven years. Until this fateful time, the person would have to endure bad luck as they did not have a complete soul to stave off evil.
However, rather than being in the depths of despair for seven years, there were also numerous superstitions about how to bring hardships to a premature end. The person could grind all the pieces of the mirror into thin dust, or bury all the pieces during a full moon under a tree. As the ages progressed even more beliefs blossomed about how to banish such ill fate.
African slaves in America thought that you could cleanse yourself of the bad luck, by placing all the pieces in a river flowing towards the south. More contemporary beliefs include: turning the mirror three times counter clockwise after smashing it, and lighting seven candles and blowing them out in one big puff when the clock strikes midnight. Some even believe touching a tombstone with a fractured piece will lift the hex. Which one would you choose?! I’m unsure if I would be able to blow seven candles out in one big puff but I like a challenge!
Don’t walk under a ladder!
When a ladder is open it forms a triangle. The number three in Christian belief was considered sacred because of the Holy Trinity, thus a triangle’s three sides were considered sacred too. Walking underneath the ladder and breaking the triangle was seen as blasphemous. This would consequently summon the Devil.
In medieval times ladders were associated with gallows, the place where a person would be hung. Ladders were usually lent against the gallows so the dead bodies could be fetched. However, walking under the ladder meant you could always be in jeopardy of a dead body falling on you. If this occurred, it was thought that you would also meet your death by being hung. However, my prime concern nowadays would be if I ladder fell on me how many broken bones and black bruises I’d end up sporting! Crutches seemed far less of a concern back then…
“Touch wood!”
Pagans believed that good spirits resided in wood, therefore by knocking on it; a person would be summoning these spirits for protection. Christian crosses also tended to be made out of wood so touching it was seen as a way of warding off evil. I suppose wood always tends to be to hand, therefore it is usually in reach, or at most a leap. Also, “Touch cotton” or “Touch silk” just really don’t have the same ring to them.
No umbrellas open inside
Umbrellas used to be used for protection from the sun, especially in Ancient Egypt. Opening an umbrella inside was seen as an insult to the sun God. Centuries later opening it up inside supposedly offended the guardian Gods of your house. As a result of this offence this would no longer protect the house you lived in and admit evil into it.
Reflecting back on all the origins of these superstitions, it seems so crazy I would be hell-bent on knocking on wood without questioning why I was doing so. Nowadays we do not live in anywhere near as superstitious times as the Medieval England, although it makes me happy that even if the original beliefs seem out-dated, we still carry out these actions to ease our minds and in this sense the history has not been lost and we are keeping it alive.
Image Sources:
1. http://www.factfixx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/seven-years-bad-luck-broken-mirror.jpg